Within agroecosystems, below ground soil biodiversity plays a crucial role in maintaining the ecosystem functioning, seeing as dynamic shifts in biodiversity affect ecosystem multifunctionality, thus food production. However, there has been a serious lack of effort done to harness the great potential of microbial functions, with the goal of improving and maximising sustainable agricultural production. A crucial characteristic of microorganisms is that they are strong contenders to build long-term resistance and resilience of the crops around them, especially against climate change.
In order to study the effects of climate change as well as the dynamic crop-soil-microbiome system, a combination of natural climate gradients and in-situ field manipulations are very accurate research pathways: MICROSERVICES will adopt both these frameworks in a dual framework strategy.
With this dual approach in mind, the main goal of the MICROSERVICES project is to improve the forecasting capacity of the cascading effects of climate change on:
- Crop-associated microbial diversity,
- Crop-microbe interactions,
- Agricultural ecosystem services delivered by the microbiome.
The MICROSERVICES project will reach this goal through multiple pathways and research endeavors:
- Using Earth Observation based on regional climate models,
- Surveying wheat rhizosphere microbial diversity, crop-microbiome interactions, and ecosystem multifunctionality,
- Simulating drought conditions by establishing in-situ field experiments,
- Employing machine learning algorithms to determine correlations and develop a predictive regression model,
- Promoting strong collaboration amongst and between research entities, agricultural stakeholders, and policymakers.
Within the European agrofood and agricultural sector as a whole, MICROSERVICES will for the large part focus on wheat cropping systems. This is due to the fact that Europe is the largest wheat producer in the world, accounting for nearly one third of the world’s wheat production. Research showcases that the climate resilience of a vast amount of wheat cultivars is declining, with wheat cultivation as a whole projected to face multiple challenges under future climatic conditions.
Thus, MICROSERVICES seizes the opportunity to use wheat production as a stepping stone towards a better understanding of microbiome diversity and related ecosystem-service, with the hope of building a more sustainable and resilient future for Europe.
For more info, visit the project website:
https://microservices.ethz.ch/